Create the Public Bank of Los Angeles #PublicBankLA

We call on Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Council to create a task force for the creation of a chartered Public Bank of Los Angeles. We want the City to use our public funds to benefit our local communities and the environment, not private Wall Street banks.

It’s time for a municipal public bank, owned by, and accountable to the People.

It’s time for the City to use our massive financial portfolio as leverage to create powerful, long-lasting and positive changes. We want a bank that takes into highest consideration the greater good of the community when deciding who receives loans, which projects receive investments, and who benefits.

Placing public deposits into a public bank will help create affordable credit to fund local small businesses, build affordable housing, create solutions for homelessness, and improve public infrastructure.

Bank revenues must be reinvested to benefit people and planet, instead of being funneled into the pockets of private shareholders and Wall Street executives.

A Municipal Public Bank with a socially and environmentally responsible mission at its core would ensure that our bank operates with strong ethical standards for its financial and investment practices, geared towards economic prosperity, environmental protection, and social justice.

According to the City Controller, the City of Los Angeles paid $109,821,552 in fees to private banks in 2016. The establishment of a Municipal Public Bank can keep our money in the community, instead of allowing it to be extracted to Wall Street.

A government that owns its own bank keeps the interest and reinvests it locally. Costs are reduced and taxes can be cut or services can be increased. Banking and credit become public utilities sustaining the local economy rather than mining it for private gain.

One of the single most effective actions we can take to give power back to the people is the development of a public banking system. Many of the systemic problems of the world are directly fueled by private banks- from war to fossil fuels to private prisons- creating a public bank would provide an alternative savings and loan service with a socially responsible charter where the people are shareholders and bankers are public servants.

We request that the City of Los Angeles fund a study and business plan to determine the economic impact of divesting from private banks and placing public deposits in the city’s own public bank.